Literature and interviews on Romanian Journalism Education
National coordination: Conf. dr. Andreea Mogoș Researchers: Dr. Radu Meza, Dr. George Prundaru
Funded by:
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Literature and interviews on RomanianJournalism
Education
IJIE Integrated Journalism in Europe is an Erasmus Lifelong Learning Project reference number 5228057-LLP-1- 2012-1-ES-ERASMUS-FEXI.This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication reflects the views only of the IJIE consortium and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein. For more information about this report, contact Dr. Andreea Mogos ([email protected] )
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Contents
Introduction ...... 3 The Journalism education in Romania – brief overview ...... 3 Case-study: Babeș-Bolyai University ...... 4 1. State of the art and literature review on online journalism and media convergence ...... 8 1.1 Presentation of the selected books and journals: criteria of selection and general information .... 8 1.2 Analysis per groups ...... 9 2. Interviews ...... 13 2.1. Presentation of the four sample groups and interviewees ...... 13 2.2. Cross analysis of interviews ...... 15 Group 1 : heads of department of journalism : ...... 15 Group 2 : media professionals teaching in schools of journalism : ...... 15 Group 3 : Researcher investigating on journalism : ...... 22 Group 4 : Head of news desks : ...... 24 References ...... 32 Annexes ...... 33 Annex 1. Articles in Journals ...... 33 Annex 2. BOOKS ...... 35 Annex 3. NGO reports ...... 35
3 Introduction Journalism education in Romania did not develop in an organic manner, due to the fact that the for more than 45 years it was not really in tune with the international developments from democratic countries. After December 1989, new journalism schools appeared, but they were lacking communication theorists and researchers as well as professionals. It was only until the second half of the 90s, when the first classes of Journalism graduated and media professionals formed after 1989 gained free media experience. As a consequence of this context, most of the journalism and communication bibliography used and recommended by the journalism professors was mostly in French and English. First translations in Romanian and the first Romanian authored handbooks appeared around mid-90s1, but they were still displaying major international influences. The scientific literature on the subject of media convergence could be characterized as being rather scarce in Romania and the scholars teaching new media and online journalism are mostly using reference books in English. The gaps between Romanian media and journalism development and the western media and journalism development were not overcome by the time the major technologic, economic changes triggered dramatic changes in the traditional media around the world. Thus, an emergent media and journalism education were confronted with new challenges. On the one hand, many Romanian national commercial media found resources to adapt to the new technologies and to offer multimedia products. On the other hand, most of the journalism schools did not have enough human and financial resources, which was translated in different rhythms in adapting the curricula to the new journalism. The curricular trends summarized by Romanian and American researchers from James M. Cox Jr. Center for International Mass Communication Training and Research in a research regarding the American schools of journalism are applicable for Romania, too: ”Journalism and mass communication education reflects the crisis and the uncertainty of the industry: some schools are trying to adjust their curricula, others are trying to change them dramatically, while others do nothing.” (Vlad & Becker, 2011). ”Changes in the news industry such as “convergence” of media platforms were much on the minds of school administrators and faculty, but movement toward adapting knowledge areas and curricular tracks was slow and cautious. Change tended to derive from individual faculty initiative rather than from formal institutional shift.” (Lowrey, Daniels & Becker, 2005).
The Journalism education in Romania – brief overview At the beginning of the 20th century the first Romanian journalism programmes were inspired by the French model. During communism, the Soviet model was used to teach and
1 Mallette, Malcolm F. ”Manual pentru ziariştii din Europa Centrală şi de Est”, Editura Metropol, București (1992) – translated from English Mihai, Coman (coord.). "Manual de jurnalism. Tehnici fundamentale de redactare." Iaşi, Polirom (1997).
4 train future ideology and propaganda vectors (there was only one school which was training journalists, the Ștefan Gheorgiu Academy – in Romanian - Academia de învăţămînt social- politic Ştefan Gheorghiu de pe lângă Comitetul Central al Partidului Comunist Român ). After December 1989, most of the journalism schools adopted the US model, with French highlights, due to the close connections with French universities and a considerable collection of works translated from French. The first post-communist BA programme in Journalism was offered by Universitatea București, starting in 1992. Romanian journalism education was tributary to diverse models during the 20th century, which may be considered both confusing and enriching. (Mogoș & Meza, 2013) Before the Journalism school in Cluj was created in 1993, two other departments were founded in Romania in Bucharest (1991) and in Timisoara (1992). At the national level, Journalism programmes are found either within a Journalism and Communication Faculty (Universitatea București) or in faculties of Social and Communication Sciences (most frequently, Political, Administrative sciences or Sociology: Universitatea Babeș-Bolyai, Universitatea de Vest Timișoara, Universitatea Craiova, Universitatea Oradea) or in Letter faculties/departments (Universitatea Al. I. Cuza, Iași) which is a good indicator for the studied core disciplines. According to the 2011 ranking of the Ministry of Education, Research and Sports, the Universities offering degrees in the Communication field are categorized from A to E (E qualification is tightly connected to difficulties in accreditation procedures). Some of the Communication field programmes in Romania are offering only Communication/PR/Advertising programmes. The only communication/journalism programs rated with A after the national assessment were the ones from Universitatea București and Universitatea Babeș-Bolyai from Cluj-Napoca. At present, there are 18 Romanian universities (of which 12 public and 6 private) which are currently offering Journalism BA programs (and some MA programmes). At present, all the BA and MA Journalism programmes are designed according to the Bologna model: 180 ECTS for BA and 120 ECTS for MA. Universitatea București and Universitatea Babeș- Bolyai offer BA, MA and PhD degrees in Journalism.
Case-study: Babeș-Bolyai University Initially, Journalism education at Babeș-Bolyai University was organized as a 2-years modular training within the Faculty of History and Philosophy for the Romanian program and the Faculty of Letters in Hungarian language. The major problems of the programs were the scarce human and financial resources. There were no professors specialized in Journalism, most of them came from the fields of Letters, Philosophy and Ethnology and they had to go through “a professional re-conversion”. The American support program of IREX brought a number of professors and professionals to teach students and to share their experience with the academic staff. The same program offered the opportunity to translate into Romanian several American journalism courses. The idea to publish a Romanian authored journalism textbook first came up when the heads of the Journalism Departments in Romania met in
5 1996. It appeared in two volumes, in 1997 and 1999, and it was edited by the former dean of the Journalism Faculty in Bucharest, Prof. Mihai Coman, one major policy maker and trend setter in post-communist journalism Romanian education [Coman, Mihai (ed.). "Manual de jurnalism (vol. I)." Iaşi, Polirom (1997); Coman, Mihai (ed.). "Manual de jurnalism (vol. II)." Iaşi, Polirom (1999).]. In 1996, the Department was endowed by the Soros Foundation with new computers for a small multimedia laboratory. At the time the Department was under the umbrella of the Faculty of History and Philosophy (between 1993 and 1995), a strong influence was exercised on the curricula by other disciplines. It consisted of more than 30% complementary disciplines of History, Psychology, Sociology and even Philosophy. The first curriculum for Journalism Studies in Cluj has been created for the academic year 1993/1994. It already contained most of the core disciplines of the field, such as Introduction to the theory and practice of mass media, Journalistic genres, Press legislation, Mass communication and mass culture, and from the second year, Sociology of mass media. Among the disciplines of academic specialization, the original ones remained almost continuous until the new Bologna curricula, in 2005/2006. The first disciplines were: Stylistics, Press Agencies, Film studies, Research methodology, and Workshops (News Writing, Radio, TV, Graphic design, Photojournalism, Verbal and non-verbal communication), later on: Romanian press history, Press styles and schools, Audio-visual techniques. The academic year 1998/99 was a milestone in the development of the curricula, after the first two generations graduated. The curriculum was redesigned and three modules were introduced (Mass Media, Public Relations, and Advertising), thus increasing the number of disciplines of academic specialization. Eleven new disciplines appeared in 1998/99, and eleven more in the following years. Thus, by the year 2002 the curriculum was enriched so much that it contained 64 different disciplines, in 3 modules, together with core, specialization, and complementary disciplines. This was the peak of the “offer”, which in the following years had to be decreased. There were certain disciplines with a short lifetime. They appeared in the curriculum and then they disappeared after a period of continuous presence. The reason of their inclusion usually was connected to the human resources (either because they were favorite disciplines of academics, and they disappeared when the person who taught it was no longer available or because the discipline was part of the core curricula, but no one was able to teach it). This was the case of disciplines like: Theory of communication, Critical thinking, Editing and publishing techniques, Information and disinformation in the media. A similar phenomenon happened with most complementary disciplines. The Opinion polling techniques, Cultural anthropology, Philosophy, Semiotics, Constitutional Law had a relative stability and continuity across the years, others had a shorter lifetime (Political parties, History, International relations, Public administration, Logics, Rhetoric, Psychology, General sociology, Political communication). Another frequent change could be observed in the transformation of the names of disciplines. In many cases, this has been the consequence of a constant adaptation process of
6 the curriculum to expectations from outside, or the change of reality, the appearance of new disciplinary areas like those connected to the new media, technical evolution or to new socio- political realities (EU integration, globalization, media convergence). The curriculum gradually changed and focused more and more on core disciplines and teaching skills, and less on basic knowledge, an obvious feature for the first years of Journalism studies. The first years were times of challenges and trials, when professors were learning together with their students. As time passed by, the new graduates started to teach at the department and they wrote their Ph.D. thesis in the field of Journalism and mass communication. In 2000, the curricula became relatively stable and we can identify a core of professors who taught every year. From the academic year 2002/2003 to 2004/2005, there was a common first semester set for all the departments within the Faculty of Political Science and Public Administration. The idea was to offer a common background for the social sciences, but it was not maintained, because this way the specific Journalism courses were postponed for the second semester, and the first year students were interested in an introductory course in their own disciplines, that would link them to the profession. In spring 2005, a meeting gathering all the Journalism schools in Romania took place in Bucharest, resulting in a draft for the curriculum to be adopted in concordance with the Bologna process. From the academic year 2005/2006, the three-year curricula started to be applied, in parallel with the original four year-program. Starting in 2008-2009, the curricula included more courses focused on the new online media and the changes that the shift to digital production triggered in the traditional media, taught by a new generation of specialized professors. In 2011 the main actors of the journalism education scene designed the Journalism BA level Grid of competencies, and the Department of Journalism from BBU made several adjustments in the curricula, in order to comply with 6 main directions: In Romania, the competences grid for the journalism programs was elaborated in 2011, within the framework of DOCIS, a European SOPHRD project. The five main professional competences are established as follows: C1. Identification and use of communication sciences’ terminology, methodologies and specialized knowledge. C2. Use of new technologies of information and communication. C3. Describing different types of audiences. C4. Media information management. C5. Identification and use of specific media deontology and social responsibility frameworks. C6. Producing journalistic content (text, video, audio and photography) for all media platforms.
At the present, Babeș-Bolyai is the only university in Romania that offers Journalism BA programmes in 4 languages: Romanian, Hungarian, English and German. The relatively short and intense process of curricular settlement is organically linked to the human resources and their research potential in the field of new media. Due to the journalism school specificities in Romania, many educators still have a philological
7 background, which is keeping them at a certain distance from new media research. On the other hand, there are young scholars with PhD dissertations on new media phenomena, able to handle social sciences research methods and to work with big data sets. But, still, the literature on new media and online journalism is still scarce in Romania.
8 1. State of the art and literature review on online journalism and media convergence
1.1 Presentation of the selected books and journals: criteria of selection and general information The current section presents the state of the art of the Romanian scientific literature on the new media, online journalism and convergence in the newsrooms. In the present sample we included three journals dealing with journalism and communication studies in Romania:
1. The Romanian Journal of Journalism and Communication (Revista Română de Jurnalism și Communicare) 2. Studia Universitatis Babeş-Bolyai Ephemerides 3. Journal of Media Research
The Romanian Journal of Journalism and Communication is a publication edited by the Faculty of Journalism and Mass Communication Studies (University of Bucharest). It is a quarterly, peer-reviewed periodical published since 2002. Studia Universitatis Babeş-Bolyai Ephemerides, journal of the Faculty of Political, Administrative, and Communication Sciences, is a scientific research journal focusing on the field of journalism, media and communication. The journal Studia Universitatis Babeş-Bolyai was founded in Cluj, in 1955, under the name Bulletin of the "V. Babeş" and "Bolyai" Universities with the Social Sciences and Natural Sciences series; from 1970 until 1974 appears the series Studia Universitatis Babeş-Bolyai Series Sociologia-Politologia and reappears in 1990, under the name Studia Universitatis Babeş-Bolyai Sociologia-Politologia; starting 1996 from this series 3 series become detached autonomous: Sociologia - Politica - Ephemerides. Journal of Media Research is a publication edited since 2008 by the Media Centre of Babes-Bolyai University. Each of the three Romanian journals are indexed in several international databases (EBSCO, CEEOL, ProQuest, Central & Eastern European Academic Source). Worth mentioning is the fact that in Romania there is no journalism/media/communication studies journal indexed in the ISI – Web of knowledge. The sample contains 29 articles. The selection of the research articles also comprises a number of articles published by Romanian scholars and researchers in international journals (Articles in international scientific reviews and conference proceedings). The timeframe for observation comprises 6 years (between 2008 and 2013), mainly because before 2009 practically there were extremely few articles on new media, on online journalism and particularly on media convergence. There are extremely few Romanian books on new media and none on media convergence. Five of them are included in the sample from Annex 2 of this report. In order to
9 identify further bibliographical resources, the syllabi of the courses on new media were consulted and we identified several references2 In the literature on new media and online journalism sample there were also included national reports published by NGOs (Center for Independent Journalism, Active Watch, Open Society Foundation) activating in the fields of media liberty, freedom of speech and media competence (Annex 3).
1.2 Analysis per groups
Scientific literature
Out of the 5 books included in our sample of books on new media, 3 are author books and 2 are collective volumes. The blogosphere and the social media are the themes preferred by the authors. Even if some of them are teaching within the Journalism departments, there is no special emphasis on online journalism.
Guţu, Dorina. "New media.", Editura Tritonic, București (2007). is considered to be one of the first (if not the first) Romanian book on new media. The book is an historical and anthropological approach of the Romanian blogosphere and the evolution of the Romanian new media in the context of the global phenomena. The book contains several interviews with some of the most famous Romanian bloggers.
Bădău, Horea Mihai. "Tehnici de comunicare în Social Media." Editura Polirom, Iaşi (2011). [en. Communication techniques in the social media] is rather a handbook/guide which presents tools and strategies for being succesful in the social media, personal branding on Twitter and Facebook, communication techniques in the blogosphere. The book is mostly centered on personal and corporate efficient communication methods and techniques.
Ulmanu, Alexandru-Brăduţ. "Cartea feţelor. Revoluţia Facebook în spaţiul social." Editura Humanitas, București (2011). [en. The book of faces. Facebook revolution in the social space]The book uses an interdisciplinary approach (anthropology, sociology, political sciences) to analyze the role of the social networks in the Arab spring uprisings, other social movements or natural catastrophes, how the social media is changing journalism. The book is based on the answers the author collected from tens of interviewees.
Balaban, Delia Cristina, Ioana Iancu, and Radu Meza. "PR, publicitate şi new media." Editura Tritonic, București (2009). [en. Public relations, advertising and new media] The book gathers 10 researches and essays on the social psychology of the new media, its functioning and transformations. It covers a wide and even heterogeneous area: blogging, game advertising, YouTube as a marketing
2 Jenkins, H. Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide,New York, New York University Press (2006). Manovich, Lev. The language of new media. MIT press, 2001. Thelwall, M. Social Network Sites: Users and Uses.în: ZELKOWITZ, M. V. (editor) Advances in Computers: Social Networking and the Web, Vol 76. Ediţia ed. San Diego: Elsevier Academic Press Inc. (2009).
10 platform in remediation and remix culture, how the online communication reshapes the political message.
Rad, Ilie (coord.). "Jurnalismul traditional si New Media", Editura Tritonic, București (2013). [en. Traditional journalism and new media] The book gathers 17 of the papers presented at the Media Convergence Conference held in October 2013 at Babeș-Bolyai University. The main themes covered are: the journalism education in the new media age, new media research methodologies, the transformation of the traditional media under the influence of the new media, professional practices/reporting in the digital era.
Articles in journals
Examining the sample of 36 articles, we have identified different typologies for the articles:
- Theoretical (establishing the theoretical framework and providing a literature review)
Young scholars, fascinated by the rapidly evolving new media, were among the first to approach it from a theoretical perspective. Articles published in 2008-2009 emphasize the opportunities and the challenges the world of the Web are presenting and the necessary changes the traditional media should go through, but they are rather very few in comparison with the articles treating the traditional media. [e.g. Enyedi Bak and Kádár (2008), Lăzăroiu (2009), Tarţa (2009), Lepădatu and Hosu (2009), Urs (2009), Sava (2011)].
At that time, many mature journalism scholars (mostly focused on print media and only rarely on radio and television) did not consider the new media as a social communication domain worth being studied. Their approach changed over the next 4-5 years, but their research interests still show inertia in approaching the new media using the new theoretical framework and the new, specific methodologies. They are still very tempted to discuss the subject in rather general terms or in a traditional versus new media paradigm. [Lăzăroiu (2009), Cojocaru (2012), ]
- Social psychology research papers (mostly using the social constructionism approach)
Media researchers with a social sciences background were more tempted to identify and analyze new media representations of the political events or actors or other social phenomena [e.g. Vincze (2011), Ambrus, Zsigmond, and Kósa (2012), Momoc (2012), Torben-Nielsen & Russ-Mohl (2012), Ionescu (2013), Mogoș (2012), Daba-Buzoianu and Cîrtiţă-Buzoianu (2013)]. The interest for politics is partly due to the fact that this type of media research gets commercial value on the Romanian communication market.
- Case studies (social network systems’ functioning, technological developments, media convergence)
The case studies are either analyzing the SNS (social networking systems), the collaborative platforms, and the user generated content,[e.g. Meza (2008), Ots & Karlsson (2012), Drulă (2013),] or the technological developments which led to media convergence [e.g. Lazoc (2010), Șuțu (2011), Drulă (2012), Stănescu, Gavriloaia, and Vizireanu (2013), Paksoy (2013)]
11 - Journalism education in the age of new media (good practices examples and curricular developments)
There is scarce literature on the Romanian journalism education in the age of convergence, due to a rather weak academic debate on this subject. Few personal and international/national projects are stimulating the debate on the innovation in journalism education. [e.g. Pătruț and Pătruț (2013), Mogoș and Meza (2013)] Some articles listed in our report are authored by foreign researchers and educators, but they were included in our sample mainly because the ideas were shared with Romanian academics during conferences and other exchanges.[e.g. Faizer (2013)]
NGO reports There are research projects carried by NGOs militating for the freedom of the press/speech, journalism ethics and frequently supporting journalists with grants and short-term trainings. In 2010, the Center for Independent Journalism (Bucharest) conducted an opinion poll focused on the perceptions and opinions of the Romanian journalists and media managers on the online instruction needs (in Romanian: "Jurnalism non-linear: percepţii asupra nevoilor de instruire în mediul online ale mass media româneşti" ). This quantitative research was part of a wider project, called Nonlinear journalism (2009-2011) and it served as a basis for the design of the trainings organized later on. The results showed that most of media managers believed that in the near future the print media and television would continue to be more profitable than the online media in Romania. On the other hand, most of the newsrooms did not organized online journalism trainings and 71% of the newsrooms did not send the employees to such trainings. Nevertheless, 63% of the managers said that their newsrooms were interested in educating the managers and 77% were interested in journalists’ online education. The second national report listed in our sample is "Mapping Digital Media: Romania.", published in 2010 by Open Society Foundations. The Mapping Digital Media project, which examines the media changes and creates a knowledge base, laying foundations for advocacy work, building capacity and enhancing debate. The Mapping Digital Media project assesses, ”the opportunities and risks that are created for media by the following developments: the switchover from analog broadcasting to digital broadcasting, growth of new media platforms as sources of news, convergence of traditional broadcasting with telecommunications.” (Mapping Digital Media: Romania 2010:4). The result of the 2010 report showed that the user-generated content featured mainly as comments on popular news websites and on independent forums, followed by blogs but a spate of serious news websites, including many covering business issues, has emerged in the past few years; media that could claim high credibility and solid original factual reporting are still scarce and few major media groups such as Adevărul Group, Pro TV, Realitatea Media, and Intact Media Group, were committed to investing massively in high-quality news websites; pioneering websites such as HotNews.ro or EvZ.ro were beginning to monetize on their web traffic, attracting healthy advertising revenues and investment from major media owners.
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The overview on the Romanian literature on the new media and online journalism leads to several conclusions. First, there is an asymmetrical relation between journalism education centers and new media research in Romania. Compared to the 18 universities offering journalism programs, the amount of scientific literature produced from 2008 is rather scarce. There are few research centers with clear and unified research directions. In most cases, new media and online journalism research is an individual project, which leads to disparate results. Secondly, usually mature researchers prefer not to approach the new media domain, or, if they do it, to compare it with the traditional media. On the other hand, the advanced digital competencies of the young researchers enabled them to carry complex research projects, based mostly on North American theoreticians and using tools adapted to the big data retrieval, refinement and processing. Third, the subject of media convergence was not until recently present in wide academic debate, fact proved by the very few scientific articles found in the Romanian literature. Thus, the subject of media convergence education in Romania is still in an emerging phase.
13 2. Interviews Both face-to-face interviews and via email interviews were conducted.
Some of the specialists from other cities offer their informal feed-back on the media convergence education topic, during the Media Convergence conference held in Cluj-Napoca in October 2013, but no records are available.
2.1. Presentation of the four sample groups and interviewees3 Interviewee Interviewer Date Position GROUP 1: Heads/Former Heads of Journalism Departments Elena Abrudan Radu Meza 27/01/2014 Professor, Head of the Department of Journalism, Babeș-Bolyai University (Universitatea Babeș-Bolyai, Cluj- Napoca). Viorica Păuș Andreea Mogoș 30/04/2014 Professor, Head of Faculty of Journalism and Communication Sciences, University of Bucharest (Universitatea București) GROUP 2: media professionals teaching in schools of journalism Lucian Ionică Andreea Mogoș 01/03/2014 TV journalist, former head of the regional studio of National Romanian Public Television (TVR Timișoara); Senior lecturer, West University Timișoara (Universitatea de Vest Timișoara). Constantin Trofin Radu Meza / 21/11/2013 TV journalist, former head of the Special Andreea Mogoș Programs at National Romanian Public Television (TVR) / producer at LookTV Senior lecturer, Department of Journalism, Babeș-Bolyai University. Brândușa Armanca Andreea Mogoș 04/03/2014 TV journalist and comentator at Revista 22, former editorial director at Ziua newspaper,; Professor at Aurel Vlaicu University of Arad (Universitatea Aurel Vlaicu, Arad) GROUP 3: researchers investigating in journalism Mircea Toma Andreea Mogoș 26/11/2013 President of Active Watch Media Monitoring Agency, Bucharest, Romania. Ioana Avădanei Andreea Mogoș 10/03/2014 Executive director of the Centre for Independent Journalism in Bucharest, Romania. Marian Petcu Andreea Mogoș 30/04/2014 Sociologist and Historian of the Romanian Media, Professor at the Faculty of Journalism and Communication Sciences, University of Bucharest (Universitatea București) GROUP 4: heads of news desks
3 In the analysis, the initials of the interviewees will be used as it follows: (EA-1) for Elena Abrudan, (VP-1) for Viorica Păuș, (LI-2) for Lucian Ionică, (CT-2) for Constantin Trofin, (BA-2) Brîndușa Armanca, (MT-3) for Mircea Toma, (IA-3) for Ioana Avădanei, (MP-3) for Marian Petcu, (AG-4) for Alin Gelmărean, (MM-4) for Mihai Moga.
14 Alin Gelmărean Radu Meza 25/11/2013 Former editor-in-chief of the newsroom of TVR Cluj. (the regional branch of National public television - TVR ) Mihai Moga Andreea Mogoș 25/11/2013 General news producer of RealitateaTV.
15 2.2. Cross analysis of interviews Group 1 : heads of department of journalism:
The Heads of the two most important Journalism Departments from public universities were interviewed. For many years, the Faculty of Journalism and Communication Sciences from the University of Bucharest was the main trend setter for the other journalism programs from Romania.
The two interviews are showing that the changes in the news industry such as “convergence” of media platforms are on the minds of school administrators, and a constant change is taking place in the curriculum in order to adjust it to the changes. In Romania, change tends to derive from individual faculty initiative rather than from formal institutional shift. Also, the heads of department seem to mention the acquisition of equipment, logistical means when asked about their efforts to cope with the changes in the field of journalism. On the one hand, by maintaining a close connection to media institutions and media professionals, Journalism school administrators are able to benefit from their experience in several ways. On the other hand, media professionals embedded in institutional practices are sometimes laggards in terms of adapting to change. Anticipating change seems to be more a result of individual researchers, Ph.D. candidates, and younger members of the staff who are digital natives.
Adapting to technological change
Both interviewees answered that adapting to technological change is a process that started in the last decade in their departments and happened gradually or in stages. At some point, efforts started specifically being made towards digital production. Proper digital equipment is seen as being a very important part of the practical teaching activities focused in production skills.
“Journalism Bachelor programs curricula have included practical courses that approach the differences between production and distribution in print and the online medium for over 10 years: Online Journalism Workshop and Graphics and Design Workshop. Starting in 2008- 2009, we’ve increased our efforts to update our curricula to include more courses focused on the new online media and the changes that the shift to digital production triggered in the traditional media” (EA-1)
“courses and practical activities/workshops were gradually introduced to increase the importance of digital multi-format production” (VP-1)
Anticipating change
The Journalism Departments’ ability to anticipate change seems to rely mostly on individual efforts of researchers who are part of the teaching staff. One of the interviewees also notes some pressure from the student body to organize extracurricular meetings with bloggers. Both department heads acknowledge the importance of young teaching staff who are willing and able to research digital media, accurately describe phenomena related to it and anticipate change through research done as part of their Ph.D. theses.
16 “Some of the changes were introduced as part of our policy of permanently updating the curricula to align to industry practices. Other changes were proposed by individual members of the teaching staff […] The younger members of our teaching staff who already fall into the category of digital natives were instrumental to our efforts of adapting the Journalism Bachelor curriculum.” (EA -1)
“[…]research in the SPARTA research centre or as part of the Ph.D. theses of some of the staff at FJSC, through student internships and extracurricular activities (meetings with professionals, bloggers etc.)” (VP-1)
Interactions with media professionals
Both the interviewees mention four main types of interactions between the departments, the students and media professionals: • Professionals who have become tenured academic staff • Professionals that teach part-time in the Journalism study programs • Interactions in the framework of mandatory internships in media institutions • Extracurricular activities such as debates, conferences, meetings etc.
“FJSC collaborates with professionals who teach seminars and courses in our bachelor and master programs. Also, for professional internships, FJSC collaborates with media institutions, including through such media professionals. Also, FJSC has tenured staff that also could be considered media professionals; they work in media institutions – in print/online, TV and radio.” (VP-1)
The heads of department seem to be very interested in developing connections with media professionals both as part of the regular activities included in the study program and as extracurricular activities. They try to find a flexible way in which to take advantage of the media professionals’ experience without cutting down on academic standards.
“Media professionals are mostly successful in sharing their experience in short meetings that usually take the form of Q&A sessions. Full semester courses usually require more time and effort and only a small number of media professionals are capable of taking on such responsibilities.” (EA -1)
Approaching digital multi-format production as part of teaching
Multi-format digital production is not necessarily approached as a single discipline. Both interviews mention a blend of theoretical and practical approaches. They primarily mention Online Journalism/Online Communication and Multimedia theoretical and practical disciplines as part of what their study plans include. However, some of the traditionally taught production disciplines are also trying to adapt to technological change and discuss “the use of digital means of production and distribution in conjunction with traditional media” (EA-1).
17 “The study plan balances the two components, theoretical and practical. For example the Online Journalism production discipline (studied in 3rd year) is predominantly practical being taught as just two hours of seminar/workshop per week, but Multimedia (a second year discipline) is taught as 2 hours of lecture and 2 hours of seminar per week.” (VP –1)
“Although our curriculum does not include a discipline that approaches it per se, the topic of digital multi-format production is addressed in courses like Online Journalism, New Media Theory, Editorial Design, Multimedia, Alternative media, Video Journalism and Online Communication. Also, specialized courses focusing on production skills […] discuss the changes triggered by the use of digital means of production and distribution in conjunction with traditional media”. (EA-1)
Multi-format production in professional simulation situations
The interviewees describe a shift in the professional simulation situations. While in some cases, students are expected to deal with production for different media as separate issues, students are increasingly required and expected to approach multi-format production, either as part of optional courses or internship activities. There is definitely a growing interest for multi-format production, but there seems to be little coherence in terms of including this in the teaching activities. It seems to be up to each of the individual trainers/instructors. Neither heads of departments mention concrete departmental policies that would create an environment for professional simulation of multi-format production such as having several different trainers/instructors from different media production media collaborating on such activities.
“The practical courses and workshops mostly require students to deal with production for different media as separate issues. Some optional courses require students to create content for different distribution media to support a cause/campaign (Alternative media) or to create content for a traditional medium and the online medium.” (EA-5)
“Both types of products are expected of the students, but there is a tendency to increase the number of multi-format products that are expected.” (VP-5)
Students’ expectations
In terms of the heads of Journalism departments’ perception of student expectations, the answers diverge a little, but they hint at the same idea: students’ expectations need to change. One interviewee claims that (with some direction included in the study program curriculum) the students are always able to adapt to the changes in the market. This statement is somewhat general, or even ambiguous and leaves room for interpretation. It definitely implies that there is a limited amount of help that the Journalism school can give the students and once they’ve graduated, they must adapt to the opportunities available on the work market.
“Students adapt – also directed by the FJSC curriculum – to the permanent changes in the work market.”(VP -1)
18 The other interviewee sees a discrepancy between the students’ expectations and the actual opportunities. This discrepancy is determined by the lack of appropriate role-models and an over- estimation of the media job market. The interviewee also stresses the students’ somewhat self- contradictory behaviour.
“Students are most interested in TV/video production and the online media. Some of them have unrealistic expectations driven by the scarcity of appropriate role-models in the national or local media or triggered by an overestimation of the media job market. Although they expect mostly practical training, they are not always willing or able to put in the effort required to master the more technical aspects of production.” (EA-1)
Both interviewees mentioned institutional efforts to increase the students’ understanding of the job market, thus increasing their chances of developing a career. One proposed solution is a course in Career management, while the other is more overall focus on critical thinking and encouraging entrepreneurship.
“We try to encourage critical thinking through analysis and reflection on practice in order to help our students understand the media market better and find opportunities to practice journalism in the context on local and national media institutions or take up entrepreneurial approaches individually or in groups.” (EA-1)
“in their third year they have a course in Career Management (one hour of lecture, one hour of seminar/week) where they are taught how to create a viable Career plan.” (VP-1)
Media professionals working in journalism schools
Media professionals (either tenured or part-time) come from different media, from both local and national media institutions. It is understandably easier for Journalism schools operating in a country’s capital to have access to the know-how/experience of media professionals working for big national media institutions. One of the interviewees stresses the fact that sometimes media professionals have difficulties adapting to a strict schedule or to the university norms and are consequently given up as collaborators.
“The professionals come from print, radio, TV – they operate both in traditional media and digital media.” (VP-7)
“They usually come from local media institutions, although some of them have had considerable experience in the national media. Over the last decade, the Department has invited a significant number of media professionals to collaborate with us. Some of them have proven to be very good teachers/tutors, others have had difficulties in adapting to the university norms or schedule.” (EA-7)
19 The overall attitude of Journalism department heads is one of eagerness towards change. However, change (especially in public higher education institutions) is a gradual process as it is dependent on the know-how and willingness of staff members (tenured or not / with a professional or an academic background) to implement it. While in terms of professional simulation, having professionals collaborate in teaching or take it up full time is undoubtedly to be desired, it seems that the ability to anticipate changes brought on by technological developments relies more on enthusiastic young research rather than on experienced professionals. As it is to be expected in a period of change, the heads of department understand that students’ expectations need to adapt to the opportunities available in the work market.
Group 2 : media professionals teaching in schools of journalism : We interviewed professionals that work in the media both in regional institutions and in national ones, the biggest being the national public television. The interviewees also teach various journalism classes in major higher education institutions in Romania.
They have all come into teaching at a time when the educational system was changing, in the 1990s. At that time, a general state of continuous change gave rise to the opportunity of allowing media professionals to classes in higher education institutions without requiring high academic credentials. This flexibility has since been restricted to both positive and negative outcomes, requiring people who are more qualified from an academic point of view to teach (they must hold a PhD or at least be in the process of obtaining the title), but limiting the access of highly trained professionals with the abilities to teach but without formal credentials. Some of those integrated in the system in the 90s have chosen to take a dual, academic and professional, path or have since gave up on one, but nowadays it is becoming increasingly difficult to satisfy both tracks, disconnecting the educational process from the professional one more and more.
The interviewees have the advantage of straddling the line, and being able to see both sides of the coin. What they seem to see is that both the universities and the media are in certain ways aware of the need to evolve and adapt to new technologies and consumption patterns, but they lack the will, the finances or the general level of acceptance to move at the required speed. Still, they consider the change inevitable.
Representations of digital journalism
The effects of the spread of digital technologies are undeniable, especially in the newsrooms. But as of yet, the main direction does not seem to be towards integration, but rather towards further refinement. Technology has made doing journalism cheaper and more efficient, letting professionals concentrate on the content, rather than on the process, allowing for easier grasping of the technical requirements. But digitalization has not yet reached a stable state. It is still in continuous evolution.
“The effects of the rise and generalization of digital technologies are obvious, strongly influencing the written press, radio and television, and bringing about a new vector – online journalism. […] The process is not yet over. It is continually changing, and has not yet reached «equilibrium»”. (LI-2)
Directions in teaching
20 In addition to easier specialization, the main change brought about by digitalization is a new type of journalism, with new processes and paradigms – online journalism. This is seen both as a separate type of new journalism that needs to be studied individually, and as an evolution of all the previous states of journalism into one, the internet becoming a container for everything. In this second view, the different types of content, while they will still exist, will be separated from the distribution channels they are traditionally associated with. So we may still have video reports, audio reports and written reports, but they will not be distributed across different media (television, radio or print), but indiscriminately on the internet.
“We definitely need at least two years of specialized digital journalism courses” (BA-2)
“It is the future for everything that the press stands for, and I’m convinced that in a few decades all the other media – except for maybe radio – will fundamentally change, will converge and cross paths. We will witness a fusion of genres, of types, of vehicles so that everything will move online.” (CT-2)
This facilitated specialization will eventually lead in exactly the opposite direction. Because learning the processes is becoming easier and easier due to technology, being specialized in just one field will not be an efficient use of one’s abilities. Students will have to be able to perform satisfactorily in all types of media (written, visual, aural) and be able to produce content both from an editorial and a technical point of view. Integrated journalism should not be taught in and of itself, but as a meeting of individual pieces of knowledge and skills, each with their independent relevance.
While everyone argues for teaching abilities across media, there are slightly divergent opinions when it comes to the shape this should take. One direction is towards teaching very general knowledge and skills and preparing students to adapt in the workplace. The other one is to teach students both general skills and specific ones so they come out prepared to take the industry full on, while hopefully maintaining the ability to move to other specific skills as requirements change.
“The online medium will no longer allow you the luxury you have in television of working in complex teams and having specialized personnel, simply because the volume of work and the speed will not allow this and it will not be justifiable in the context of the current technological advances”. (CT-2)
“We should accept the idea of convergence, with everything it entails: preparing students for writing, for using audiovisual languages, but also for knowing the equipment, the specialized software of image and sound processing etc.” (LI-2)
In addition to skills, which become less important because they can be learned on the fly and are always changing, one interviewee also mentioned the great salience that a healthy attitude towards journalistic work has.
“The will to be part of a team, to respect teamwork and hierarchies is very important. […] Professional abilities should be built on these qualities, starting with a very clear, very precise basis that school has to give, not with an avalanche of information that students cannot assimilate and use”. (CT-2)
21 The bias towards television that our interviewees have also shows in their responses. Television is seen as closest to this ideal of convergence as it already integrates several types of content and processes, from writing to knowing camera and editing techniques, sound set-ups etc. According to CT-2 video journalism is the point of convergence, reuniting all the other media.
“Television in general is multitasking. Except for certain editors who only do documentation or write texts – so don’t go out of the office – all the other have to know, in equal measure, what using a camera means, what filming techniques mean, what filming processes mean, what sound means, what video editing means, what preparing for editing entails, what preparing the set entails; the set director has to know absolutely everything that goes on on the set and in the editing room, because he has to be able to help in any situation that pops up, be it a common one or an emergency, and he has to intervene exactly at the right place and not get into other people’s way.” (CT-2)
“We need new masters in the field, especially in the area of professions such as «digital design for television»”. (BA-2)
Convergence in education
When it comes to developing new curricula to fit the new requirements, the interviews show a slight level of skepticism that the institutional inertia will be overcome. The education system does not adapt to the changing trends fast enough even if the needs are known and debated inside journalism departments or across universities. It is difficult to change the current national standards, and the will to do that is low at the higher, decision making levels.
“It’s only of use to us, personally. The education system is conservative, risking to fall way behind reality. There are all kinds of interest etc.” (LI-2)
Instead of changing the curricula per se, there are other suggestions that could short circuit the system and make it work in favor of properly teaching integrated journalism. Constantin Trofin suggests converging classes.
“I would create teams of professors to work together, not separately, with the students. […] I mean, the visual guy, the writing guy and the photography guy should come together, but also together with the students, and think, apply the knowledge on concrete cases, transforming the information in a multimedia message. Let’s see how this story can be told like this and like this and like this”. (CT-2)
Keeping up with technology
One thing on which all interviewees agree is that keeping up with technology in the education system is difficult, mainly because of the costs involved.
“Theoretically it’s great. But things lose speed when it comes to money.” (LI-2)
“In general, the universities where I taught move slowly from this point of view, calling on the lack of appropriate equipment or funds.” (BA-2)
22 “It’s not a matter of curricula, but of technology, which can be reduces to a problem with finances.” (CT-2)
They support the idea that this can be partially overcome by teaching generic concepts that can then be easily adopted to specific equipment and technologies, but at the same time it is also important to be on the cutting edge.
“If you learn to film on a DSLR camera you’ll easily move to any professional camera, but the DSLR also prepares you for other situations. You have to always be aware with everything that is going on in technology.” (CT-2)
Teaching integrated journalism
While the interviewees are in favor of teaching integrated journalism unanimously, there are some issues that are brought up. One is the fact that integration is not yet understood in Romania. It is currently seen just as a change in the distribution channel that does not affect either the content or the process fundamentally.
“Obviously! [Teaching integrated journalism] is becoming a more and more acute need” (LI-2)
“If you go on our online information portals you do not find any integrated structures. You can find a piece of news that is only written, a video from who knows where… it’s a mixture of materials that are treated in a single medium, with no integration.” (CT-2)
Trofin also advises against teaching journalism in an integrated fashion from the very beginning.
“You risk creating a big confusion in people’s heads. […] You should first learn all the basic procedures on the main directions, and then start to see the common points, where they can meet, where they can overlap and how they can work together emphasizing each other’s qualities.” (CT-2) Group 3 : Researchers investigating on journalism: Out of the three interviewees, one is teaching Journalism at the Bucharest University, the other two are senior journalists who shifted from the media to the NGOs aiming not only to analyze the media content, media ethics, but to defend the freedom of the press.[ActiveWatch Media Monitoring Agency and Center for Independent Journalism]
The meaning of ”integrated journalism”
The concept of integrated journalism is not treated in a homogenous manner. Petcu and Avădanei are mostly referring to the integration of the media practices:
”integrated journalism is the convergence of the distribution means of a story using the most appropriate techniques to reach the target: setting the subject on the public agenda, making the media consumer attentive and helping him/her to form his/her own opinion.” (IA-3)
”integrated journalism – probably this means «integrated» in Romania – is an integrating journalism, which is referring to professional practices. Professional techniques are not
23 anymore treated with regard to specific media channels, because the internet is simplifying everything. […] This new type of journalism could be seen complementary to public relations and advertising.” (MP-3)
Toma and Avădanei answers are showing that they are referring to the media integration in terms of different distribution platforms and that they are familiar with the integrated newsrooms projects from Romanian media: Adevarul.ro (initially, the main medium was the national daily newspaper, then the web page was organized and lately a TV studio producing videos exclusively for the online: http://adevarul.ro/)
”The use of online media is increasing and it offers multimedia opportunities. I find not only «normal», but necessary that the journalism practice takes advantage of these opportunities and to answer to the challenges of the technological revolution.” (IA-3)
”Integrated journalism is when a media institution specialized in a particular type of communication extends its activity on other channels. The radios displaying images on their websites were quite numerous, but the idea of having inside a newspaper’s newsroom an online TV studio was new in terms of investments and editorial activity.” (MT-3)
New trends in news making
Each of the interviewees has a particular way of seeing the set of factors that are determining the changes in the newsrooms. The advance of technology is considered by Petcu as being one of the main reasons that triggered changes not only in newsrooms, but in the forms information and entertainment is provided to the audiences.
“When judging these trends – mostly generated by the technological evolution that seem to be out of control – we have to see which types of contents we are dealing with, because the frontiers between the journalistic genres and traditional formats are changing.” (MP-3)
Avădanei emphasizes that consumption habits should determine the content of the media, implying that some national traditional media outlets should change their editorial approach in order to adapt to the new trends.
”The newsproduction cannot ignore the consumption habits of the audience. To produce news following old models and waiting for the public to come to you only because you have (or had) provided quality content seems to me an illusion with negative effects.” (IA-3)
Toma is bringing into discussion the alternative media projects, namely Casa Jurnalistului (http://casajurnalistului.ro/ ), which he considers to be one of the most modern editorial products, which are integrating attractive texts, good images and videos. But he warns that in spite of their freshness and quality products, these small projects are difficult to sustain. Toma sees the solution in a more dynamic mainstream media:
”An institution providing information content should be a big institution, because gathering news is expensive and requires team effort. As far as the news is concerned, big newsrooms (which are smaller and smaller) should change. I don’t know how this change will happen, because the paradigm of the big newspapers owners is stuck in traditional models. ” (MT-3)~
24 All the interviewees’ discourses are implying that the rapid technological changes and economic crisis that entirely challenged the traditional media models in Romania. This also affects their way of establishing their human resource needs, being really difficult to draw the profile of the 21st century employee. As seen in the interviews with the media professionals, they rather prefer reliable journalists instead of highly trained multimedia monsters.
Integration and the journalism curricula
As the analysis of the curriculum of each journalism program in Romania, as well as the interviews with the heads of the Journalism departments and the researchers show, the concept of integrated journalism should be first operationalized, because yet is not clear enough where the industry is heading to and what are the most valuable competencies and abilities to be delivered by the journalism schools in order to provide graduates the means to easily find a job and function in the media industry. In Petcu’s words: ”Journalism educators should meet and discuss about these new trends.”.
”Journalism schools are uneven in terms of infrastructure, teaching staff and libraries. I would rather not generalize. On the other hand, journalism is a profession where there is no sense of belonging to a profession, to a reference group, and here we get to the issue of the role models.” (MP-3)
Though, Toma considers that, in some cases, the requirements of the media industry are behind the abilities and knowledge of the quality graduates.
”Journalism schools are preparing dynamic people, able to integrate more communication. We are not first time witnessing a situation in which you have to forget what you have learnt in order to be accepted by the employer.” (MT-3)
But maybe one the most interesting ideas comes from Petcu, who is linking the curricular efficient development with the way state subsidised places are distributed to the education providers:
”When state subsidised places will disappear, a number of universities will disappear, which means that their products were not finding any place on the labor market. This will sanitize the curricula, because the education will function for real on the principle of demand and offer. (MP-3)
Media researchers are aware, in the same time of the challenges the media industry is facing and the challenges the education system is confronted with. New models are to be embraced in the media, where independent, alternative projects are raising, and where the traditional media have to be more dynamic. But at the same time, changes should be made in the journalism education (a curricula fitting the requirements of the media market, an optimal balance between theory and practice). Group 4: Head of news desks: In terms of digital journalism and multi-format production, depending on how flexible they are, media institutions are able to adapt or not. Private businesses naturally adapt faster to integrated newsrooms models than big traditional public media institutions. For both, the biggest changes are happening at the level of information collection.
25 While some employers value solid knowledge of the surrounding social, economic al political realities over technical skills, others emphasize job appropriateness (as defined by specific traits, skills or knowledge), but also most of all, motivation and dedication.
The heads of news desks claimed technical training being done in Journalism schools at the present covers their basic needs, but this could further be improved by using more equipment, extending the student’s access to it and setting up long-term professional simulation projects managed by students.
A short presentation of newsdesks:
The interviewees came from very different media institutions – a local/regional TV station that operates as a branch of the public Romanian Television, is lagging in terms of technology/logistics, but is very well-structured, according to traditional norms although it has recently gone through massive personnel cuts and a local institution that combines production for print, online and TV – managing, from a single newsroom three different media outlets, a local print newspaper, a news website and the local branch of a private national news television. The distinction between private and public management is very clear from the very beginning. Besides determining how flexible an institution is in terms of adapting to changes on the market (technological or economic), this distinction is also noticeable in terms of how they interact with other institutions (like journalism schools) or what they look for in journalism graduates.
“TVR Cluj is one of the five regional TV stations of the Romanian Television. It was the first one founded.[…] Until recently (when TVR Târgu Mureș was founded) TVR Cluj provided news coverage from all the 12 counties in the Transylvania region.[…] Initially, the structure of TVR Cluj had about 140 employees structured in several departments: technical, artistic, programs, news and minorities (including Hungarian, German, Slovak, Rroma and Jewish).[…] Besides its own regional production, TVR Cluj had to collaborate with all the national public television stations: TVR 1, TVR 2, TVR Cultural and TVR Info.[…] After the recent budget cuts (2102) and subsequent restructuring, there are about 100 permanent employees, but the workload has not changed significantly.”(AG -4)
“The newsroom I work in handles three types of media - print, online and television: the local print daily Ziua de Cluj, the local news website ziuadecluj.ro and the local station Realitatea TV Cluj.”(MM-4)
Multiformat production
One of our interviewees was involved in a multiformat production newsdesk and described their production process. The reporters collect information in the form of text and video and then specialized editors or writers produce appropriate products for TV, web and print. This form of integration was, in the interviewee’s opinion, an effect of the economic crisis, but was inevitable as an effect of technological development.
“The newsroom is structured separately, from the human resources management point of view: there are reporters for print, reporters for online and reporters for TV, but the what they produce is conceived in such a way that it can be distributed through all the three media.[…] The task of turning a raw contribution in a product appropriate for each medium is, at this
26 point, up the writers and editors.[…] A reporter usually has to gather information in two forms – text and video. These are then processed for TV and the website – because there is no longer a difference in terms of quality […]. A video edited for TV can be also distributed online without any problems.[…]Behind this there are two reasons. First there’s the economic reason: the managers realized that, by using the same reporters, with the same raw information, and using only two or three specialized editors, we can create content for several media, without having entire dedicated newsrooms.[…]Then there’s the technological reason. Even without the effects of the crisis, the development of technology in the past few years would have lead to similar practices anyway.” (MM -4)
Another interesting aspect is the non-formal aspect of the transformation of this newsroom into an integrated one. We should emphasize how peer-learning was a key factor in the transition from separate newsrooms for the traditional media to this integrated newsroom.
“The reporters already knew how to use different recording techniques. For editing you still need specialized personnel. The already knew how to record and store digital media. They just had to apply it. Some of them were already doing that in their private lives. There were just minor improvements needed and that happened by them helping each-other improve. For example, our colleagues working in online were taught how to use a camera by our colleagues in TV, our colleagues working in print were taught by the people working in online how to gather and transmit information in a timely manner so that they could keep up to the speed of the medium. The transfer from specialized work to poli-specialized work was easy because the people working in the newsroom were young.” (MM -4)
The public institutions are having difficulties adapting to changes, mostly because of their rigid structure, legislation, hierarchies etc. Any innovation that takes place seems to be the result of individual effort. Institutional policies are lagging or not including partial integration TV-online on their list of priorities.
“We definitely cannot ignore the online boom that has taken place: if you’re not online, you practically don’t exist, right? That’s what they say. We struggled for years to be able to show up on the internet. It was really hard, I have to admit, but not impossible. At TVR Cluj, we never had and still don’t have resources allocated for this online activity – we were told it is not a priority.[…] Now our broadcast can be seen online on tvrplus.ro […]. We started creating Facebook pages and Twitter handles for our main shows to act as hooks. Most of them are administered by the show producers themselves. Now discussing the signing of some partnership with YouTube so that we can upload archives with our shows […]” (AG-4)
Digital Journalism
While newsrooms in public institutions are struggling with oversized technical departments working with expensive, obsolete technologies, both interviewees agree that the biggest change happening in journalism in the digital era is at the level of information gathering. The reporter must work with much more than pen and paper, needs to record audio-visual information, but also other kinds of raw information that will be processed later, depending on the pace of the respective medium.
27 “In the digital era, the biggest change happened at the level of reporters, the level of information gathering. The pressure on them has increased a lot. The requirements have increased.[…]They have to gather lots of information for different media.[…]The new reporters we’ve hired recently seem to have good digital know-how so it was easy to work with them.”(MM-4)
“It’s a pity that the Romanian Television is, at this moment, lagging with all this, especially technologically speaking. It is very hard to keep up. We have a very big technical department. We cannot auction for equipment ourselves, at the level of our regional station. We cannot buy anything. Everything goes through Bucharest, the set the priorities. From what I understand, we’re getting some new cameras soon, and even if we can’t go to HD as we should have already, we will go to 16:9 as a step towards digitization. We’re still filming on cassettes, not on cards.”(AG-4)
While the interviewee from the private sector sees this as leading to just a matter of increased workload for the reporters, the representative of a public media institution sees a need for public institutions such as the Romanian Television to encourage free competition between independent audio-video producers and video-journalists and develop into a sort of platform to co-finance, co- produce and help distribute individual production projects.
“I think the focus in the future will be on video-journalism.” (AG-4)
“We have to encourage independent producers, it’s an obligation. […] There are financial difficulties; they don’t always manage to get the money they need. They have good ideas, but they need help, financing or co-financing, co-producing may projects – that’s what we should do as a public station[…]”(AG-4)
Recruitment criteria
While some heads of news desks describe a selection process involving several steps, they admit personal recommendations (from university professors in the case of graduates) work in most cases.
One very important point is made below. Both interviewees agree that it’s not technological know- how that the graduates they interview are often lacking, but lack o understanding of the economic, political or social reality.
“The selection process has 3 levels. First we select using the CVs, but then we take into account recommendation from professors. The second level is a face-to-face interview, and the things that matter most there are the ability to communicate and a knowledge of the field they are going to work in, or the economic, political and social life of the city. At this level there are still some problems. If in the last few years the Journalism school in Cluj managed to improve in terms of technology, students still cannot be convinced to pay attention to what’s happening around them – this is their biggest problem. I rarely have to show them how to operate a camera, but quite often I have to show them how the city mayor looks like.”(MM-4)
28 The interviewee from the regional public TV was less concrete and said that willingness to take on challenges, willingness to work and determination are very important, broadly speaking. Specific sets of traits and skills are apparently looked for in different positions.
“As in every field, where there are too many students, there are some who excel and there are those who just wound up there […]. Those who excel, who are good at what they do, they will move forward. […] There is definitely potential, there are many good ideas and you can spot the difference between those who and to do this job and those who do it for other reasons and don’t have any arguments for doing this.” (AG-4)
“It depends. Are you hiring a reporter? You ask the person about their sources, their experience. You want an anchor? They need diction and they need to be good looking or have charisma […]. You need a producer? You need to sit down and talk to the person, see they’ve got they heads on their shoulders, find out if they have any idea about a TV format, about managing a team, from team leader to the drivers…You need a sports commentator? You look at their background and what information they’re able to come up with, how passionate they are about that sport.[…] You can’t provide a template.”(AG-4)
Journalism schools
While both interviewees admitted that the journalism school covers the theoretical grounds and basic technological training well, the interviewee coming from the private sector complained the internship periods were too short and to scattered in the curricula to be useful to the students. He went on to argue that semester-long internship period in the last semester would be more appropriate.
“The use of technology and the theoretical framework of journalism is a solved problem. But if we discuss employment, what they know about their professional future, the environment they will work in, the salaries, I think there’s a lack of information. There’s need for longer internships. The two weeks of professional internships they have per semester are too little. This need is not necessarily linked to journalism.”(MM -4)
In terms of improving the teaching of technical skills within the university study programs, both interviewees stated that more, better equipment and extended access to it ca improve the student’s training.
The other interviewee had an alternative view and argued that it’s a matter of motivation first and foremost and that the best thing Journalism schools can do is to have semester-long professional simulation situations organized within the university space and time. Also, as a final remark, the interviewee emphasized the importance of self-teaching.
“They are very good, I have to admit. Those who are passionate about technology are aware of everything that’s going on in this world. But again, it’s up to them.” (AG-4)
“I think the kind of projects where the students have to manage themselves as a team, as a simulated enterprise make them more aware of what they have to do and leaves them more prepared.” (AG-4)
29 “What students especially need to understand is that there’s a lot of self-teaching involved. You have to read, to see, to simulate, to practice.” (AG-4)
30 3. Comments and recommendations.
Scientific literature and academic research
As a fairly new academic sector journalism education in Romania has just come out of its first stages and is struggling to catchup with models in Western democracies. The massive technological changes happening in the past decade has somehow helped level the playing field. Media businesses and Journalism schools everywhere around the world are confronted with similar problems: coping with change brought on by shifts in the market caused especially by new communication technologies.
In terms of scientific literature on new media, media convergence and integrated journalism published by Romanian authors in Romania, there is very little to speak of. The few books that have been published only manage to scratch the surface, provide knowledge that quickly becomes obsolete (such as lists of successful bloggers or “how to” guides to using social media), discuss broad global phenomena, or are heterogeneous collections of case studies that have little in common in terms of theoretical framework or method. The concept of integrated journalism is not approached by scholars in Romania (except the ones working on this project).
In terms of reference books for Journalism education, professors that take up teaching new media, online communication/journalism etc. usually employ articles, reports, books in English either available online or in University libraries. With the majority of journalism and communication researchers and professors still having initial training or background in a different field, it is difficult to come up with a unified methodological approach.
The scientific literature published and research conducted are scarce and heterogeneous.
Scholars (especially younger scholars who have their initial training or Ph.D. in Communication Science) should find way to collaborate more at the national level in hopes of coming up with consistent methodology and common theoretical frameworks.
The media businesses
The media businesses are struggling to come up with strategies and new business models as traditional audiences are dissolving. There is a considerable segment of young people living in urban environments for which the Internet has become the primary medium. Although there are some news outlets that have a long history of being online already, with more and more traditional print institutions moving to the online environment exclusively, there is increasing competition. Integration happens first as a result of cutting production costs and only secondly as a result of technological change. All businesses seem to realize the importance of finding new, viable business models, but few of them actually risk experimenting at their own cost (there are of course some notable exceptions mentioned above). There are several alternative media initiatives that are experimenting new production formats, but their sustainability is questionable, as is also the case with innovation projects supported for a limited amount of times through grants awarded to NGOs for. In big media institutions innovation is not generally encouraged, nor is it part of some development strategy. Managers seem only willing to change when a model no longer works.
31 Media businesses and public media institutions are characterized by inertia.
Media businesses should experiment more with multi-format production and new business models. There is little investment in innovation.
Journalism schools
Only a part of the Journalism schools in Romania function in the context of solid higher education institutions. All the schools have heterogeneous faculty, coming from diverse backgrounds – social sciences, humanities, even technical education. This translates into a lack of cohesiveness and low similarity between the schools, which in turn leads to divergent approaches in terms of curriculum development and teaching strategies. An important effect is also the lack of cohesiveness in terms of the students’ perception of the Journalism study program curriculum.
Most of the Journalism schools have made efforts to get digital equipment in the last decade, but there has been no long-term investment strategy and as new generation devices are launched every year, it is increasingly difficult for large public institutions especially to adapt.
Digital multi-format production is approached differently, depending on each departments and each faculty member’s vision (especially because their understanding of the concept is different).
At the present, employers no longer complain from a lack of practical/technical training in journalism schools, but do they criticize the graduates’ lack of professional experience (as contradictory as that may sound).
Both heads of journalism departments and heads of news desks agree that journalism graduates often have unrealistic expectations of professional life and very little understanding of the media business. On the one hand, the traditional solution to this problem is the emphasis on internships in media institutions. On the other hand, as long as institutions themselves have high inertia and are unwilling to invest in innovation, another possible solution would be emphasis on teaching critical thinking and entrepreneurial skills that might be of greater use to a future graduate that will most likely become self-employed.
Journalism schools curricula lack cohesiveness and emphasize employability over entrepreneurship.
Journalism schools should emphasize entrepreneurship.
32 References Mogoş, Andreea, and Radu Meza. "New Trends In Journalism Curriculum Development. Romania Within The International Context." Studia Universitatis Babes-Bolyai, Ephemerides 58, No. 1 (2013).
Nistor, Cristina. "Journalism Education-Journalism Professional Practice and Educational Programs." Studia Universitatis Babes-Bolyai-Ephemerides 2 (2011): 89-96.
Szentannai, Ágota & Andreea Mogoş. Changes in the Curricula of the Faculties of Social Sciences during their 15 years of existence in Romania. Curriculum Research Fellowship Program, Central European University (2006).
Ulmanu, Alexandru-Brăduț,The Romanian Journalism Education Landscape in Terzis, Georgis (ed.) European Journalism Education, Bristol: Intellect, (2009) Pp.479-490.
Vlad, Tudor & Lee B. Becker. The Impact of the New Technologies on the Journalist’s Status and on Mass Communication Education, James M. Cox Jr. Center for International Mass Communication Training and Research, University of Georgia, Paper presented at the international conference Identity and Intercultural Communication, Bucharest, Romania, September 26-27, 2011. http://www.grady.uga.edu/coxcenter/Conference_Papers/Public_TCs/Bucharest_Sep2011_PaperandC harts.pdf
33 Annexes Annex 1. Articles in Journals A.1. Journal of Media Research
Ambrus, Zoltán, Csilla Zsigmond, and István Kósa. "Social Comparison with Groups Portrayed in Online News." Journal of Media Research-Revista de Studii Media 1 (12 (2012): 27-44.
Aparaschivei, Paul Adrian. "The use of new media in electoral campaigns: analysis on the use of blogs, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube in the 2009 Romanian presidential campaign." Journal of Media Research-Revista de Studii Media 2 (10 (2011): 39-60.
Enyedi Bak, Sarolta, and Magor Kádár. "The Fascinating World of Web 2.0." Journal of Media Research-Revista de Studii Media 2 (2008): 73-83.
Lepădatu, Ioana, and Ioan Hosu. "Changing media. Online newspapers." Journal of Media Research- Revista de Studii Media 3 (2009): 66-80.
Meza, Radu-Mihai. "Text, metatext, hypertext and subtext-YouTube in the culture of re-mediation and remix: a new media study." Journal of Media Research-Revista de Studii Media 2 (2008): 51-72.
Mogoş, Andreea. "Scientific images and visualisations in Digital Age. From Science to Journalism." Journal of Media Research 5, no. 3 (2012).
Momoc, Antonio. "Social media in Romania: left wing or right wing? The case of the 2009 presidential campaign: Blogs and Facebook." Journal of Media Research 5, no. 2 (2012).
Tarţa, Ancuţa-Gabriela. "Mass-media featuring Multimedia:“Consider this the hint of the century”." Journal of Media Research-Revista de Studii Media 3 (2009).
Vincze, Hanna Orsolya. "Social Networking in the News (Romanian News Media Representations of Online Social Networking)." Journal of Media Research-Revista de Studii Media 3 (11 (2011): 3-18.
A.2 Studia Universitatis Ephemerides
Faizer, Melanie. “Using an Online Interscholastic News Networks as a Collaborative Classroom Teaching Tool.” Studia Ephemerides, no.2 (2013)
Mogoş, Andreea. “Digital Culture’s Influence on the Individuals.” Studia Ephemerides, no.2 (2012)
Paksoy, Alaaddin F. "Transformation of a Newspaper into an Internet TV: A Case Study On Hurriyet Tv." Studia Universitatis Babes-Bolyai-Ephemerides 2 (2013): 17-28.
Urs, Nicolae. “Computer Mediated Communication: The Internet and the Changes in the Media Landscape.” Studia Ephemerides, no.2 (2011)
Urs, Nicolae. “Online Journalism – A New Challanger in the Media Arena.” Studia Ephemerides, no.2 (2009)
A.3 The Romanian Journal of Journalism and Communication
34 Coman, Cristina & Mihaela Păun. “The image of the public institutions and new technologies.” Romanian Journal of Journalism and Communication, issue 4 (33), year V (VIII), (2010): 45-53.
Şuţu, Rodica Melinda. “Convergence, the New Way of Doing Journalism.” Romanian Journal of Journalism and Communication, issue 1 (34), year VI (X), (2011): 48-53.
Sava, Eleonora. “Digital Ethnography.” Romanian Journal of Journalism and Communication, issue 3 (36), year VI (X), (2011): 53-56.
Păcurar, Adrian. “Science Communication, Science Journalism and the New Media.” Romanian Journal of Journalism and Communication, issue 4 (37), year VI (X), (2011): 22-28.
Ots, Mart & Michael Karlsson. “Out of control? How online papers are both shaping and being shaped by user generated content. ” Romanian Journal of Journalism and Communication, issue 1 (38), year VII (XI), (2012): 51-58.
Torben-Nielsen, Karen & Stephan Russ-Mohl. “Old is not sexy. How media do (not) report about older people, and how older Swiss journalists started their own newspapers online.” Romanian Journal of Journalism and Communication, issue 1 (38), year VII (XI), (2012): 59-68.
Bader, Simona. “The impact of new media on the public. The Protests in Romania, January 2012” Romanian Journal of Journalism and Communication, issue 3-4 (40), year VII (XI), (2012): 35-44.
Ionescu, Nicoleta. “Online political communication: the role of image upload on Facebook.” Romanian Journal of Journalism and Communication, issue 1 (41), year VIII (XII), (2013): 53-58.
A.3 Articles in other scientific reviews and conference proceedings
Bardan, Alice. "“The Tattlers' Tattle”: Fake News, Linguistic National Intimacy, and New Media in Romania." Popular Communication 10, no. 1-2 (2012): 145-157.
Cojocaru, Gheorghe. "MEDIA IN THE ERA OF INFORMATION SOCIETY." Analele Universităţii Spiru Haret. Seria Jurnalism 13 (2 (2012): 5-12.
Daba-Buzoianu, Corina, and Cristina Cîrtiţă-Buzoianu. "Media Picture Politics: a Communicational Analysis of the Romanian Media Public Space." Sociologie Românească 01 (2013): 19-28.
Dragomir, Marius. "The Fourth Estate: The Coming Year in Media: A Choice of Monopolies." Transitions Online 01/15 (2013).
Drula, Georgeta. "Media and Communication Research Facing Social Media." In Patrut, Monica, and Bogdan Patrut, eds. Social Media in Higher Education: Teaching in Web 2.0. IGI Global (2013): 371.
Drula, Georgeta. "Social and online media research–data, metrics and methods." Review of Applied Socio-Economic Research 3, no. 1 (2012): 77-86.
Drulă, Georgeta. "Community Stories and News Sites." Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences 92 (2013): 287-293.
35 Drulă, Georgeta. "Implementation of the Blogs in the Romanian Media Industry." In Kulturspezifik in der europäischen Wirtschaftskommunikation, pp. 139-157. Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden, 2013.
Drulă, Georgeta. "The role of social media for media companies." International Journal of Social and Humanistic Computing 2, no. 1 (2013): 6-30.
Lazoc, Alina. "Implications of Multimedia Convergence on Contemporary Consumer Behavior." Anale. Seria Stiinte Economice XVI (2010): 593-598.
Lăzăroiu, George. "Information technology, digital journalism, and the structural implications of new media." Analysis and Metaphysics 08 (2009): 78-83.
Lăzăroiu, George. "The effect of new media on news content." Analysis and Metaphysics 08 (2009): 104-109.
Patrut, Monica, and Bogdan Patrut, eds. Social Media in Higher Education: Teaching in Web 2.0. IGI Global, 2013.
Stanescu, Emil, Bogdan Gavriloaia, and Radu Vizireanu. "Video consumption in the process of digital TV-Internet convergence." In Electronics, Computers and Artificial Intelligence (ECAI), 2013 International Conference on, pp. 1-4. IEEE, 2013.
Voicu, Cristina Georgiana. “The Impact of New Communication Technologies in the Social and Journalistic Environment.” Buletinul Stiintific al Universitatii Politehnica din Timisoara, Seria Limbi Moderne 12 (2013): 5-16. Annex 2. BOOKS Balaban, Delia Cristina, Ioana Iancu, and Radu Meza. "PR, publicitate şi new media." Editura Tritonic, București (2009).
Ulmanu, Alexandru-Brăduţ. "Cartea feţelor. Revoluţia Facebook în spaţiul social." Editura Humanitas, București (2011).
Bădău, Horea Mihai. "Tehnici de comunicare în Social Media." Editura Polirom, Iaşi (2011).
Rad, Ilie (coord.). "Jurnalismul traditional si New Media", Editura Tritonic, București (2013).
Guţu, Dorina. "New media.", Editura Tritonic, București (2007).
Annex 3. NGO reports Avădani, Ioana, George Ene, Ştefan Voinea, Sorin Tiţa-Călin, Liana Ganea, Gabriel Dragomir. "Jurnalism non-linear: percepţii asupra nevoilor de instruire în mediul online ale mass media româneşti", București, Centrul pentru Jurnalism Independent (2010).
Preoteasa, Manuela, Iulian Comanescu, Ioana Avadani, Adrian Vasilache, Marius Dragomir, Mark Thompson, Yuen-Ying Chan et al. "Mapping Digital Media: Romania." Open Society Foundation
36 Romania (2010).